


Black Waltz

by L6vy



Series: Songfics [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Haunted Joker, Haunted place, Supernatural Elements, Undead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:18:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22020160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/L6vy/pseuds/L6vy
Summary: After a car chase, Joker decides to stay in an empty building for the rest of the night. However, he has to discover that it is not as empty as he had expected. Or is his mind just playing tricks on him?This story is inspired by the song Black Waltz by Avatar. For some reason, I always have to think about the Joker when I listen to it, so I ended up writing this.
Relationships: Joker (DCU) & Batman
Series: Songfics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1703104
Comments: 6
Kudos: 13





	Black Waltz

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Черный Вальс/Black Waltz](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22243609) by [KrasnayaLady](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrasnayaLady/pseuds/KrasnayaLady)



Life is so wonderful  
Life is so beautiful  
Stay a while  
No one gets out alive  


Life is so wonderful  
Life is so beautiful  
Just smile  
No one gets out alive  
\- Black Waltz (Avatar)  


  


Joker was speeding through the dark streets of Gotham. „He’s never going to get me,” he murmured as he pressed the accelerator of the purple car. His goons had painted it just for this occasion, and he was sure he had left an impression. People would think of Joker whenever they saw something purple now. Oh, and how his bat must be affected by this! Joker chuckled. What a pity the car had to be burned soon.

A look into the mirror affirmed Joker’s impression that the Batman hadn’t managed to stay behind him. Joker couldn’t see the dark vigilant anymore. “Seems like he’s already lost me.” Joker giggled. The chase had been just the way he liked it. Speeding dangerously fast through the curves, cars braking at the very last moment when seeing him approach, the sirens of the police cars and chaos on the streets. The big black Batmobile always behind him like a cat chasing the mouse.

Joker laughed at the comparison. He was the Jerry to Batsy’s Tom. Always tricking the stronger opponent and escaping. After driving for five minutes more to make sure the bat was really not behind him anymore, he parked the car in a dark alley. Stepping out, he took one last, longing look at it. It would take a while to get such a nice car again. He was already making plans on picking up a new one while taking the gasoline out of the boot and spreading it in and on the car. With a sigh, he pulled out a lighter and set the car on fire. His mood lifted immediately when he saw the flames eating up the seats, casting the alley in a warm orange light. Hot waves of air caressed Joker’s skin while the fire eliminated his traces.

After staring into the flames for a moment and enjoying the heat almost burning his skin, Joker yawned. His look wandered over to the buildings in the dark alley he was in, and he wondered if he could find a place to stay for the night over here. He had driven to this part of Gotham on purpose, as many of the buildings were empty and beyond repair. Whistling a happy tune, he walked down the street.

Suddenly, he saw a black cat walking towards him and then entering a building to his left through its broken door. “Oh, this seems to be just perfect,” Joker said while looking at it. It had multiple floors, but the windows were broken, and the gloomy light gave the façade a dirty, abandoned look. The door was made from wood and big parts of it were missing. For a cat, it was easy to get in, but for a human, it would be more difficult. Joker stepped closer and put a hand through one of the holes the door was plastered with. Patting around, he found the door handle on the inside.

“Here we go.” With a satisfied grin, Joker entered the building, closing the door behind him.  
Inside, he was met with silence. It hit him the moment he closed the door, surrounding him like cold water of a quiet lake. For a moment, Joker couldn’t breathe, overwhelmed by the sudden emptiness that filled him. He closed his eyes and let it flood through him. Everything else seemed to vanish as he stood there. He was alone, alone with his thoughts. The feeling it gave him was not very pleasant.

With an angry frown, Joker forced his eyes open again and crossed his arms. He forced himself to focus on taking in his surroundings and ignoring the cold feeling lingering in every part of his body. He noticed that he was standing in a dark corridor, vaguely lit by the gloom of the fire outside. To his dismay, the stairs to the right were wooden and covered in mold, and he didn’t want to test if he could still make it up there. They didn’t look very stable. His only option was to go through the door at the end of the corridor. As Joker considered leaving the place instead and calling someone to pick him up, a breeze from behind him brushed his legs. He shuddered from the sudden coldness.

When he stood in front of the door, Joker could read a sign saying “WELCOME”, hanging on it. He let out a small laugh and traced his fingers over the letters. “Well, if you want visitors so desperately that you welcome the Joker, I won’t let you wait any longer.” He didn’t know when exactly he had decided to stay, but it must have been before he had walked up to the door and pushed it open.

Inside, it was even darker, and after stepping in and closing the door, Joker couldn’t see anything for a moment while his eyes got used to the darkness. Without seeing or hearing anything, he stood in the darkness, still holding the door handle of the now closed door. The room smelled old, and Joker could practically feel the long-forgotten memories that lurked under layers of dust that he was sure were covering the place. But there was another smell, something he was quite familiar with. Being a chased criminal and hiding in different places made him very acquainted to it. The smell of death.

“Meow”. The sudden sound snapped Joker out of his thoughts. Suddenly, the eyes of the cat looked up at him. The animal was right in front of him, staring with barely visible eyes. Crouching down, Joker looked into those eyes directly. “Seems like you have to share with me tonight, honey. I’m afraid the sign said I was welcome here.”

The cat started moving, and Joker decided to follow it. His eyes were a bit more used to the dark by now, but there weren’t many things he could have bumped into anyways. A small window on the other side let in a bit of light, barely enough so that he could make out his surroundings. There was an old couch in the corner, and he saw a painting hanging on one of the walls. Apart from that, the room was empty. At least he didn’t have to sleep on the floor.

As he followed the cat to one corner of the room, Joker passed the painting. For some reason, his eyes were drawn to it, and he could see the face of an old woman on it. She smiled lovingly, Joker found. He stopped in front of her and looked into her eyes, smiling back. “Hello there. I hope you feel honored for having me here tonight. I’m sure you won’t call the police.” He laughed and continued walking. 

But for some reason, he had the feeling of being watched. Looking back to the painting, he could have sworn those eyes were looking at him. He grinned and waved, and for a moment, it seemed like the woman winked back at him.

“ _Joker_ ” 

Joker turned around. Had he just heard someone whisper his name behind him? But he couldn’t see anyone. And he was sure nobody was there except for the cat.

“ _Joker_ ” 

Now it came from the right. When he saw that nobody was there, he started giggling. This place was getting interesting. “Where did you lead me, little cat?” Joker whispered, excited. He had thought his night could not get any better after the amazing car race he had with his bat, but this place seemed to be more fun than he had expected. Nothing could compete against the big bad bat, but Joker felt a wave of excitement rushing through him, sharpening his senses and setting him on edge. He was ready for whatever was coming.

Suddenly, he felt a cold weight on his shoulder. Joker turned around. A woman was standing in front of him, pale and in a dirty dress. She had placed one hand on his shoulder and stared at him with dead eyes. Her mouth was slightly open and expressionless.

“ _Joker_ ” 

This time, Joker shuddered at the sound of his name. It definitely came out of her mouth. He couldn’t bring himself to move, still looking right at the woman in front of him. Something about her seemed very familiar, but he couldn’t tell what it was. Then, she slightly turned her head, reveling a hole on the right side of it. For a moment, he was frozen in surprise, but then he started laughing. Was he actually seeing a dead person right now? A zombie maybe? This was surely a first. If his mind was playing tricks on him, he was enjoying it quite a lot right now.

“Hello lovely. Did you want to greet me? Are you living here? You look as dead as this whole place, you know.” Joker commented when he could breathe again, slipping out of the woman’s loose grip. She did not seem to be very pleased by his comment. Suddenly, her face turned angry. She closed her mouth and bared her teeth, striding forward with furrowed brows. Her eyes, so lifeless a moment before, screamed murder, and Joker quickly turned around and rushed away from her.

He saw the cat standing in front of a door at the other side of the room, scratching on it. With a grin, he approached his furrowed friend. This cat knew exactly what he was looking for. When he reached it, he opened the door and the cat went in, followed by the Joker. He quickly closed the door and leaned onto it. Eyeing the cat, he took a moment to catch his breath. “Now what was that, Kitty? Did you really lead me into a haunted house? I thought it was obvious that I wanted some rest, although I won’t complain about the entertainment.”

The cat just stared back up at him. He was sure it would have rolled its eyes if it could. Joker looked up, his gaze wandering around another dimly lit room. There was a big bed in front of him with a small window on top casting a cold light on it. Joker wondered how it could still be here, as the place was obviously abandoned, but his mouth stretched into a wide grin nonetheless. “I’ll take it back. You knew exactly what I was looking for!”

But when he looked around for the cat, it was nowhere to be seen. A soft wind let the open window on top of the bed creak, and he looked up. The cat must have gotten out there while he was looking somewhere else. Or had it been just as supernatural as the rest of this place seemed to be? Joker frowned, suddenly feeling betrayed by the animal, although he couldn’t quite tell why.

“ _Joker_ ” 

The sudden voice from the other side of the door made him jump back from it in surprise. He heard a scratching that reminded him of the cat earlier. It didn’t seem to be coming from a cat though, as it sounded like someone was scratching the door on a place way higher than a cat ever could. Was it that woman then? He tried to remember whether she had long fingernails. It would make sense, he thought, rubbing his shoulder where she had grabbed him.

Then, there was a quiet click sound, as if someone had turned around a key, from one corner of the room. Joker looked around just when the door of an old closet slowly opened. He couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw two skinny legs stepping out of it, followed by the rest of a slim body. A young man slowly turned to face him. He didn’t have eyes and held one hand on his throat as if in pain.

Joker stared for a moment. Blinked. Then, he started laughing. “I know you!” He cried out triumphantly. “I killed you a few months ago in that warehouse!” He remembered how the man had started arguing with him about a plan he was making to lure out his bat. It would be too risky, he had said. Joker had just laughed for a moment, before attacking his eyes with a knife. The screams had been fantastic. But then he must have lost his control, because he had ended up strangling the guy.

“What was your name again? James? John?” He saw the man twitch. This meant he wasn’t that far from the truth. Then, Joker realized something else. “I killed that woman outside as well, didn’t I? Is this some sort of punishment?” Joker started laughing again. A haunted house full of the people he had murdered. Trying to get their revenge after Joker had killed them. Oh, life was truly wonderful sometimes.

The man was coming towards him with a grim expression on his face. Joker slowly pulled out his knife. He wasn’t sure if he could fight that weird creature with it, but he also couldn’t go back outside anymore. He briefly glanced up to the window. His best chance was to run to the bed and try to reach it from there.

Joker started running while at the same time hearing a loud crack behind him. He couldn’t see what was happening, but he could hear voices. Not just one voice, or two, but many. They whispered his name, over and over. The sound was desperate, painful.

“ _Joooookeeeeeeeer_ ” 

It was like a choir, just that the singers had no talent at all.

The man approaching him from the side seemed to be way faster than the woman in the living room and Joker knew there were many more of his kind behind him.

Just when Joker had reached the bed and wanted to jump onto it, a cold hand grabbed his ankle. He fell to the floor beside the bed with a loud thud. “Fuck,” he cursed, rubbing his head and then looking down at his ankle. A big white hand was holding it. Following it with his gaze, Joker had to learn that it was attached to an arm that came from under the bed. “What the-“

With an enormous strength, the hand started pulling. “NO!” Joker screamed as a sudden panic rose in him and he started stabbing the hand with his knife. It didn’t help, and now everything was covered in blood. Through the panic, he realized with surprise that that creature could actually bleed. A lot.

He looked in front of him to see if he could hold on to something, anything, to keep him from disappearing under the bed with that strange hand. He couldn’t find anything, but instead, he saw people dashing through the door towards him. All seemed familiar, and for some of the faces he could tell when and why he had killed them. He even remembered the names of one or two.

Joker realized how hopeless his situation was. He was dragged under a bed by a supernaturally strong arm, there was nothing he could do against it, and a dozen of supernatural creatures were approaching him. There was no way he could escape this. Am I going to die now? Joker wondered. He chuckled. How ironic. Killed by the ones he had killed before. Not a bad death. At least he had killed them first. He smiled. He was not afraid of death, it was just a part of life. Nobody got out alive. Except for those people in front of him, apparently. Though, how alive they really were was a mystery to him.

Then, he saw a big dark figure looming behind the people who had entered the room. It had such an aura of power that Joker immediately shuddered. He instantly knew who that was. A person he definitely didn’t kill and never would.

“Batsy,” he whispered in awe. Joker could hear the heavy footsteps as he entered the room. The creatures closest to the door turned around at the sound and started screaming when they saw who was standing behind them. Within seconds, everyone was panicking and running into the corners of the room.

Joker watched the scene with delight, but the hand on his ankle kept pulling him under the bed. Almost his entire legs were gone now, and he could feel heat brushing against his right leg. But none of it mattered as he looked up to the monster that approached him. Surely it was coming to save him.

But when Batman was there, he just stood in front of him, dark and tall. “Did you kill these people?”, he growled. His voice was very loud, and Joker winced in shock.

“Y-yes Batsy. But they deserved it, you know.” Joker was suddenly almost more scared of the bat than the creatures that had haunted him before. His simple presence had darkened the room, as if he was carrying a darkness too large to contain. Joker could simply stare, admiring the blackness of that heart. He breathed it in like it was the air keeping him alive.

Suddenly, a strong pull brought him even further under the bed. Now, everything from his waist downwards was lost under the bed and the heat against his right leg seemed to become hotter. “Help me, Batsy!”, Joker cried out in a sudden panic, raising his hand towards the dark figure.

And Batman stepped forward and took his hand. He pulled Joker out from under the bed, his ankle suddenly free of the cold fingers. Batman let the clown hang in the air on one arm for a moment, looking him over. Joker stared back at him and locked his eyes with the bat when they traveled up again. For a moment, they just gazed into each other’s eyes. Then, Joker grinned. “I knew you would save me.”

That seemed to snap the bat out of his thoughts. Batman grabbed his legs and then Joker found himself lying in strong arms, gazing towards his enemy’s face. He let himself relax for a moment before starting to giggle. “You know, I think you’re the biggest monster here. They all got so scared.” 

“Shut up,” Batman growled and leaned down to lay Joker onto the bed. “Wait, what are you doing? They’ll come for me! I’m not scared of you!” Joker clutched at the cape on Batman’s shoulders, looking up at him with pleading eyes. He knew all those creatures would start attacking him the moment he left Batsy’s arms.

But Batman didn’t listen to him and laid him down, untangling himself from the desperate arms of the Joker. Joker immediately watched the corners of the room, waiting for the attack. And then blinked. There was nothing. Nobody. “Batsy, what did you-“

Joker looked at the spot where Batman had been just a few seconds ago. He wasn’t there.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the story.  
> Let me know what you thought about it :)


End file.
